Barkley Drops Guard, Exposing His Soft Side

THE SPORTS COLUMN

May 27, 1993|By Larry Guest of The Sentinel Staff

For a guy who takes gruff pride in not being a role model, Charles Barkley, the NBA's Most Valuable Iconoclast, was treading dangerous waters Wednesday afternoon. Speaking from his car phone in Phoenix, Barkley was waxing very responsibly about the reasons he created minority scholarship funds at both his former high school and university.

Tooling along en route to a late lunch several hours before the Suns playoff game against Seattle, Sir Charles sounded for all the world like a good Samaritan who would never spit on a little girl or knock a skinny Angolan into Olympic orbit. Maybe it was because his passenger in the car eavesdropping on the conversation is the one person in the world capable of truly busting his chops: his mother.

Whatever the reason, Barkley sounded remarkably like a good-hearted uncle in discussing the celebrity golf tournament he is hosting at Disney World this summer and his personal charity that will reap half the profits. The inaugural Charles Barkley Celebrity Golf Classic featuring megastars from the sports and entertainment world will be staged July 17 at Disney's Osprey Ridge and Eagle Pines courses with half the proceeds going to the Florida AAU and the other half to the Charles Barkley Minorities Scholarship Foundation at Auburn University, where Charles ravaged SEC frontcourters for three years.

The scholarship foundation is one of two Sweet Charles started. The first is at his Leeds High School, where dozens of low-income blacks have been helped with college fees during the fund's 5-year existence. He created the one at Auburn two years ago with a personal endowment of $150,000.

Why?

''It was something I wanted to do - to give something back,'' Barkley said Wednesday. ''We should try to give some of these kids an opportunity to improve themselves. We don't owe them anything. But we can give them an opportunity they might not otherwise have, and then they've got to take advantage of it themselves. I want to make both of the funds really huge, maybe a million dollars in each one.

''I haven't met any of the kids we've helped in the Auburn fund yet, only some of the ones from Leeds. It's been great to see just how appreciative they are. That makes you feel great. I know those kids are from a small town and have limited opportunity. I came from the same place. Some of them have been brothers and sisters of the kids I went to school with. It really gives me a great feeling.''

I wanted to check the phone connection. Or ask for postive ID. Could this really be Sir Bully or one of the guys at the office funning me? I warned Barkley if he kept up such talk, somebody might start spreading the nasty rumor he is a role model, after all. Sir Charles, or Saint Charles?

He laughed uneasily at the suggestion.

''I don't know about role model. I just think everybody who has a lot, who is fortunate, has an obligation to help others - whether you're an athlete or a successful businessman, you have to look around and help,'' he said.

Honest, folks, Charles Barkley said that. I have it on tape.

The golf tournament here is Barkley's first attempt to fund his scholarship funds with outside money. Just how much this will add remains to be seen, but the prospects appear improved with the recent addition of corporate aide from the likes of Publix, Budget Rent-a-Car, Anheuser-Busch, Cellular One and Cocoa Beach Pier. Early celebrity confirmations are in hand from Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, David Robinson, Chuck Daly, Ahmad Rashad (who will host the Saturday dinner), Sonny Smith (Barkley's glib former coach at Auburn who will emcee the pairings party), Lee Roy Selmon and Phoenix Suns teammates Dan Majerle, Danny Ainge and Kevin Johnson.

Barkley's organizers are shooting for a field of 240 and thus set the first-year entry fee at a modest $500, which includes the Friday pairings party and Saturday dinner. Info and reservations are available from a Tampa firm doing all the legwork (813-289-GOLF).

Why Charles is staging a tournament in Orlando run by people in Tampa in part for a scholarship fund at Auburn is a story involving his tailor, who lives in Washington, D.C. It's too involved to explain, and I don't believe it, anyway. I prefer to think Charles just didn't want the people of Phoenix to see him do something nice. Would be awful for his image.